Between smiles
by Umeko Tsumagoi
Summary: Midquel to "Until that smile returns." Souda found that Jabberwock Island was surprisingly lonely. Posted for Kuzuhina Week 2019.


**Notes:** Posting this for Day 3 of Kuzuhina Week (Canon Day), though it's going up a bit late!

This is sort of a midquel to "Until that smile returns," taking place at some point between the two chapters I guess? It takes place at some point between its beginning and its end, at least!

PS I really like making danganronpa kids have slumber parties.

I hope you enjoy!

* * *

**Between smiles**

Jabberwock Island was surprisingly lonely.

Well, like, of _course_ it was lonely; there were only the five of them on an otherwise abandoned archipelago in a world where a significant chunk of the human population had been annihilated.

But Souda hadn't expected it to be so _lonely_.

It wasn't like he didn't have his own part to play there; Hinata's plan to revive their comatose classmates required add-ons and upgrades to the existing equipment that no one on the island was more qualified for than Souda himself. But that was mostly one-time work; after that was completed, all Souda was needed for were repairs, monitoring the computer towers for overheating, and the occasional installation of more RAM.

Even then, Hinata was surprisingly good at not pushing the machines too hard; he seemed to just innately know what limits he was constrained by.

What it all came down to was that, even if he stuck around the control center, there was rarely anything for Souda to actually _do_. He wasn't actively at work, just on-call. And it was just depressing to hang around there with nothing to do, especially when Kuzuryu answered any attempt at conversation with a one-eyed glare, so Souda ended up mostly hanging around in his cottage and tinkering with random equipment on the island that he thought could benefit from some repairs.

He didn't like that. It reminded him too much of how he was Before, and that didn't sit well with him.

So after about a week of that, he decided to actively go out and find something to busy himself with. Accompanying Owari on her prowls around the islands was out of the question—even if he could keep up with her running pace, he certainly wouldn't be any help as she traversed through the brush and overgrowth to hunt for food. Besides, sometimes she came back with claims of having wrestled _bears_ and _cougars_ and that was, like... not Souda's idea of a good time.

He managed to pluck up the courage to offer to help Sonia with cooking, and apparently the gods had decided to smile down upon him that day because she _accepted his offer_ and he was _absolutely thrilled_ until he ended up with a front-row view to his princess all-too-contentedly gutting and filleting a rabbit. That was a bit too much for his delicate sensibilities, so he just politely excused himself and definitely did not go back to his cottage to cry.

In the end, Souda busied himself with cleaning up the grounds, mainly focusing on the pool in front of the hotel. Honestly, he was most interested in fixing up the pool's filter pump, but there was no reason to make headway on that while the pool itself was still dried up and cracked and infested with bugs. (And no, he did _not_ yelp and fall onto his ass when a family of spiders came flooding out of a long-unused return jet.)

But even though he had found something to occupy his time, that didn't mean it wasn't still a bit lonely. After all, his only companions in his project were weeds, spiders, and several tubes of sealant. So when he heard Sonia and Owari chatting cheerfully as they passed the pool one day, around sunset when Souda was just considering finishing up anyway, he immediately honed in on the sound.

"Hey!" he called out, propping his arms on the edge of the pool as he looked up at them. "What are you two ladies up to?"

"Ah, Souda-san," Sonia said, and her smile was like a morning ray of sunshine. "Owari-san and I thought that it would be a nice change of pace to have a slumber party tonight!"

Souda immediately perked up. "Hey, that sounds great!" He made to heft himself out of the pool. "I'm in! Anything you want me to bring?"

Just as Sonia was about to open her mouth to grace him again with the sound of her lovely voice, Owari had to step in and ruin the moment. "Hey, get lost, Souda! This party is girls only!"

Souda lost his balance and fell back into the pool. "Ow... wait, what? You mean I can't join in?"

"You're not a girl, are ya?"

Sonia gave a small, apologetic smile. "I am very sorry, Souda-san, but tonight it will just be us two girls. Maybe next time!"

Souda pouted a bit as he watched the two of them head towards the cottages, their giggles echoing on the tropical breeze, but he had to admit that maybe it _would_ be a little weird if it was just him and two girls having a slumber party. But if Hinata and Kuzuryu were there too...

He was struck by an idea then, and he pulled himself out of the pool and got to work, grinning.

* * *

"Hey, you two! Let's have ourselves a slumber party!"

The looks that Hinata and Kuzuryu gave Souda a half hour later when he barged into the control center very nearly made him want to pull his beanie low over his eyes and immediately retreat, but he nervously gripped his bag of loot from Rocketpunch Market and tried his best to power through. "Or, uh... we could just crash the girls' sleepover instead..."

"The fuck? That's an even _worse_ idea." Kuzuryu crossed his arms, his single eye narrowing into a glare. Souda was honestly a little surprised to see him outside of the observation room, but apparently he and Hinata had been discussing something by the computer. "Do you think we really have the time to be having a _slumber party_ under these circumstances?"

"That's... a very good point," Souda agreed, wringing his hands in his tote bag. "But, uh, I mean... maybe it would be good to take some time to kick back and relax, or something...?"

Kuzuryu looked like he was about to protest again, but Hinata leaned back in his chair, rubbing at his eyes. "Actually, a little break from this doesn't sound too bad," he said. "Not that it's not important to keep working, but I feel like I'm at a point where I'll be more productive after taking a breather... if that's okay?" He lowered his hands, mismatched eyes looking up at Kuzuryu as if seeking permission.

"Why are you asking _me_ if it's okay," Kuzuryu mumbled, rubbing at the back of his head. "Fine, sure, I don't really get it but I guess we can do the dumb slumber party..."

Souda grinned, feeling confidence bubbling up inside him again. "All right!" he cheered. "Bro Fest is a go!"

"Seriously? _Bro Fest?_"

"Let's all head to my cottage!" he continued, ignoring Kuzuryu's retorts as he physically pulled Hinata up and out of the computer chair.

To be perfectly honest, Souda's cottage wasn't exactly equipped for a slumber party—he hadn't done much more before seeking out the other boys than a quick sweep to shove all the spare parts he had strewn about into the bathroom, and there were probably still some screws and bolts here and there that he had missed. At the very least, though, he had found three sleeping bags in storage at Rocketpunch Market to toss onto his floor.

Kuzuryu immediately plopped himself onto one of the sleeping bags, sighing. "Well? What exactly do you have in mind for this party?"

"Uh..." Souda trailed off uncertainly, but he caught sight of Hinata making himself a little _too_ comfortable on a sleeping bag, so he pulled a magic marker from his tote bag with a flourish, grinning cheekily. "Well, first off, whoever falls asleep first is subject to punishment! Not, I mean..." He floundered a bit, catching himself on that particular word. "I just mean... we're gonna draw on your face. Not, you know... _that_."

"Thanks for the reminder," Hinata sighed, shaking his head.

"Yeah," Kuzuryu agreed, "how about we _don't_ bring that up?"

"R- right... uh, then chips!" Souda next pulled out a bag of potato chips, grinning nervously. "How about we forget about all that and have some snacks instead?"

"Wait, Souda—" Hinata called out, then grimaced as the bag popped open. "We're... supposed to save the non-perishables for emergencies..."

Oh... right. They _were_ living off of a finite amount of packaged food. Souda looked down at the open bag of chips. Well, there was no fixing that now—unless he could scrounge together the materials to make a vacuum sealer, maybe. Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea, but Bro Fest came first. "One bag isn't gonna hurt anyone," he decided aloud as he sat down, placing the bag between the three of them. That threw a bit of a wrench into his plans, though; besides the sleeping bags, snacks had been pretty much the only thing he had grabbed from storage. Pushing his tote bag to the side, he grinned expectantly at his two friends. "So what else should we do?"

"This stupid thing was _your_ idea!" Kuzuryu shouted, as Hinata slapped his forehead. "_You're_ the slumber party expert, idiot!"

"Wait, wait." Souda raised his hands defensively. "I'm no expert or anything. I've actually never been invited to a slumber party since elementary school. You guys are gonna have to help me out here."

Kuzuryu fumed, frowning. "And you really think a yakuza kid would have been on the guest list for those sorts of things?"

"Uh..." Uncomfortable, Souda let his gaze wander over to Hinata. "Well, how about you...?"

Hinata was silent. He shifted his sitting position, cleared his throat, and finally said, "Well, I guess we could... talk..."

"_Talk_, huh," Kuzuryu drawled sarcastically.

"I mean, the few slumber parties I've been to have mostly involved video games and chatting into the night, and I don't think we have much of the former, unless..."

Souda shook his head when Hinata looked at him. "Nah man, nothing that runs reliably, at least. Those are low-priority projects."

"Of course they are," Kuzuryu grumbled.

"Stop complaining and eat something, man," he said, pushing the bag of chips to Kuzuryu. "Anyway, okay, let's talk! So which of the girls are you guys aiming for, Sonia-san or Owari?"

The other two froze, exchanging glances for some reason, before Hinata slowly answered. "Uh, if I had to choose, I guess Owari...?"

"Yeah, sure, Owari..."

Souda frowned, unable to hide his disappointment in his friends. "What, you— you mean you two don't understand Sonia-san's charms, then?!"

Hinata blinked and Kuzuryu groaned.

"Fine, then Sonia," Hinata amended.

"But you can't have her!" Souda argued.

Kuzuryu slammed a hand on the carpet. "Then who the hell do you _want_ us to say, huh?! It's either Sonia or Owari, you're not giving us any other choice unless you just want me and Hinata to be fucking each other!"

Souda was taken aback for a moment, staring at the other two; Hinata's face had gone beet red for some reason, all the way to the tips of his ears, and Kuzuryu seemed to be growing steadily pinker, too. Furrowing his brow, he licked his lips and said, "I mean, I'd totally support you two if that—"

"I think that's enough talking," Hinata said hurriedly. "How about, um... Souda, do you have any _unreliable_ video games that we could play, then...?"

Souda had no idea what Hinata's issue was, but as requested, he fished out a first-generation Playstation from his bath and an LCD TV from behind his toilet. A full quarter of the TV screen was dead and the Playstation's cover had to be taped closed before there was any hope of it playing the handful of scratched discs Souda had scavenged from the third island, but the setup worked just well enough to keep them occupied and off the topic of girls (?).

It was only two hours later that the controller slipped from Hinata's fingers to the floor, and Souda grinned to see that his friend had fallen asleep in the middle of Gran Turismo.

"Hey, Kuzuryu," he whispered, nudging the yakuza in the side. "Looks like someone's in for some punishment."

"Seriously?" Kuzuryu gave him an exasperated look at Souda uncapped the marker. "You're really going to be that guy? You do realize the reason _why_ he'd obviously be the first one to fall asleep, right?"

Souda paused, thrown from his thoughts of the many inappropriate things he could graffiti onto Hinata's face. Now that Kuzuryu mentioned it, the idea of punishing Hinata—Hinata, who was pushing his physical and mental limits, staying up until all hours of the night, to create a program that could bring all their friends back...

That really would be an _unbelievably_ asshole move.

"Well," Kuzuryu said shortly as he plucked the marker from Souda's fingers, "he _did_ know what he was getting into, though. So I guess we can't let him get away with this completely unscathed."

After carefully laying Hinata down on the sleeping bag, Kuzuryu put the marker to his cheek and, biting his lip, neatly penned out a line of letters.

_Thanks for everything_

Hiding his blush behind an awkward cough, Kuzuryu capped the marker and sat back on his heels again. "I guess something like that will be fine," he muttered.

Grinning, Souda took the marker back and bent over Hinata, scrawling _"you're the best!"_ across his forehead, and for the next five minutes they took turns leaving messages of encouragement and appreciation on their friend's face.

"You know," Kuzuryu said lowly after they were done, surveying their handiwork, "I think he'll actually be _more_ embarrassed by this than if we'd drawn pictures of dicks."

And despite his best efforts, despite knowing that he should stay quiet and let Hinata sleep, Souda couldn't help but bark out a loud laugh.


End file.
